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Ryan Bridge: Yes, sport is dangerous · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Full credit to Tom Slingsby and the Aussies on their
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: victory over the weekend. Obviously didn't hurt that the Black
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Foils and Burling and the French for that matter, crashed out,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: which was brutal to watch. I had the pleasure of
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: being there on Saturday in the grandstand and you get
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: a sense of how fast these boats are going and
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: how close to one another they are. It is frightening,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: but that's what makes it such a thrill, isn't it.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: You're not meant to say that, but everybody there on
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Saturday was pretty much as hyped about the near missus
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: and the close calls as they were about the results
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: in the actual racing. And I think that's just human nature.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: You can't look away from a car crash, can you.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: It's the same reason UFC is nipping at the heels
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: of boxing and we've got run it straight. You know,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: they're actually making money. People have been paid now to
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: run into each other for sport. We like the excitement
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: of somebody possibly getting hurt or injured. I know it's sick,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: but it's true, isn't it. Throw on the fact that
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: athletes take the risks, hopefully calculated ones and come out
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: victorious when you have yourself an afternoon of entertainment. There's
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: skill and talent and technology involved, no doubt about it.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: But you wouldn't turn up to watch a sale GP
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: boat race itself, would you. The question is where the
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: people would still be thrilled by this split fleet format
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: with fewer boats justing for position, which is a move
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: that apparently was on the cards anyway. And if this
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: is the first of many safety improvements, how different would
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: the competition look and feel. Look at what happened to
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Rugby Union when safety overtook entertainment. If you don't give
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: people action, they just go find it elsewhere. Now, don't
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: get me wrong, I'm not saying I want crashes galore
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: and let's throw caution to the wind and create the
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: equivalent of bumper cars on water. But it must surely
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: be something that the organizers will be thinking about and
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: toying with. And as for Burling, on the day, people
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: were saying, oh, did he push it too far? If
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: he executed the exact same race in one without crashing,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: nobody'd be complaining, would they. But that's the thing about
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: this competition. It's fractions of technology, weather, conditions that make
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: a difference. There's talk that has Rudder failed him. Was
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: that driver induced failure or just bad luck. No one
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: wins playing safe and people don't watch sport for safety features.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: But at the same time, to win a race, you've
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: got to finish it, and that lesson more than any
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: change to the rules might be what slows drivers like
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: burling down a touch in the future. For more from
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to news talks.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: It'd be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio.